We were pleased to welcome Sonny Webster and Gareth Evans from the British Olympic Lifting team to Connect today as part of their Help For Heroes Titan Tour 2015.
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| Gareth introducing themselves to the Connect crew and telling us a little bit about the tour and the charity. |
What started as a seed of an idea one weekend before Christmas has evolved into a 17 day tour of some of the best CrossFit boxes in the country to lift heavy stuff, inspire people to get into Olympic lifting, share their lifting and coaching experience with members of each box and most importantly to raise money for Help for Heroes charity.
From their Charity page (which of course you should visit if you would like to donate to this great cause):
Sonny Webster (commonwealth games athlete) and Gareth Evans (2012 Olympian) are on a UK wide quest to raise money for the Help for Heroes charity. They shall be travelling the country in a motor home visiting 16 different gyms on 16 consecutive consecutive days giving you all a chance to train and challenge the pros. These incredible athletes will be putting on a Weightlifting masterclass attempting record breaking lifts and offering out their advice at absolutely no cost in the hope you will all help support this amazing cause. This event is set to be the biggest ever tour done by any British lifters in history. So find you nearest location and join them on there quest to support this charity.
The guys were on their 6th straight day of lifting and encouraged all of our members to lift with them, coaching us between sets and offering out advice on everything from mental preparation before a lift to set up positions to nutrition. They were super friendly and created a great fun atmosphere whilst also trying to hit some pretty big weights and stay focused whilst our other Sunday morning classes were going on around them!
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| Above - Sonny about to lift a 140kg snatch. Below - actually doing so! |
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| A clean & jerk in the bag from Sonny whilst our members look on and soak it all up. Below - Gareth with an easy looking 130kg Push Jerk! |
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| Our friends from CrossFit Corinthians dropped by and their kids got some great lessons from Gareth and Sonny. The kids had some amazing technique and really impressed the adults. Look at that triple extension! |
Watching the guys move so much weight so fast, with such power and with such amazing technique was awesome and I'm sure has inspired everyone to hit it hard during training this week at the box. To see Gareth lift the weights he does and only weigh in at 62kg bodyweight was insane!
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| 130kg squat jerk? Oh go on then...... |
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| Sonnys 190kg split jerks from the blocks. Sonny competes in the 94kg bodyweight class. Above - Gareth equals his 150kg split jerk weight from the Commonwealth Games, taking it from the blocks. |
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| Amazing to watch Gareth move so quick with so much weight. He lifts in the 62kg bodyweight class. This was a warm up pic. |
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| Not....quite....balanced......! |
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| Some 210kg double reps to finish things off - Back Squat |
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| Sonny and Gareth with myself and my nephew and fellow coach Morgan who came down for the weekend to meet the guys. |
We have a great facility at Connect and if you have ever thought about learning the Olympic lifts then we are one of the best places to do so in the South East. We have 11 lifting platforms, a full array of mens and womens bars and bumper plates, specific beginners and advanced classes and five British Weightlifting accredited coaches headed up by World Masters champ Coach Holly. Give us a call if you would like more info or a chat about the sport and what it could mean to you.
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| Representing our Connect Weightlifting Club shirts! |
We wish them the best on the rest of their tour and hope they find a refill for their calor gas bottle to stop them freezing in their camper van tonight as they head off and onto the next box!
